Those aren't salaries per se. Any mass cost of living increase is most likely retirement benefits from the government. Most companies don't do automated salary bumps. Minimum wage levels aren't even annual and sporadic instead without any alignment to the cost of living. More politics typically. And it's a myth that price inflation automatically translates to higher worker pay. Companies have been aggressively charging more and instead trying reduce pay or terminate payroll to maximize profit margins. This is not a new game; we saw the same thing in the early 1990s recession. So, I don't see the premise holding water that higher brackets are reached.